Matt Damon talks up his next ‘Bourne’ film

For the past couple of months, we’ve known Matt Damon was going to again play Jason Bourne. On the red carpet this weekend to celebrate the fourth season of Damon and good friend Ben Affleck’s “Project Greenlight” on HBO, Affleck made mention of his fellow Oscar winner “doing a ‘Bourne’ movie next fall.”

That led Damon to tell E! News, “Yes, next year. It’ll be 2016 when the movie will actually come out. [Director] PaulGreengrass is going to do another one, and that’s all I ever said. I just needed him to say yes.”

This will be Damon and Greengrass’ third “Bourne” film together and it will be the fifth movie in the overall series. A spinoff franchise starring Jeremy Renner began with 2012’s “The Bourne Legacy.”

As I reported in September, Greengrass at first was reluctant to do a third “Bourne” film with Damon. As the director toldDeadline.com late last year: “In the end I felt I had given it my all in two films I’m very proud of, and didn’t want to make another if I didn’t believe it could be as good if not better. I couldn’t come up with an idea, and the business reality of franchises is that when a studio has a ‘Bourne,’ they’re obliged to make one every couple of years. I discovered in my heart I didn’t have another one in me.”

For fans both of Greengrass’ films and Damon’s portrayal of Jason Bourne, it’s nice there’s been a change of heart.